Author
Topic: Cheapskate stories (Read 264566 times)

I will admit to using my tissues twice, but only when I'm not actually sick. I have major allergies, so I blow my nose, snuffle etc. all year round. But I only use one end normally, and then the other. And relaly only when I run low at work and forget to bring in another box! At home I have one in every room, so I just blow and throw.

-- Made his kids get the grilled cheese sandwich at a local restaurant instead of the hamburger, because the grilled cheese sandwich was 5 cents cheaper. The fact that neither of his kids liked the grilled cheese sandwich was irrelevant. It was 5 cents per person!

--Refused to bail his teen daughter out of a rural southern jail in which she'd been incarcerated for speeding. (Seriously, the whole thing was like that song, When the Lights Went Out in Georgia. Very scary.) Another relative who had heretofore been known for his own cheapskate qualities was appalled and promptly bailed her out.

2. Had another relative who

--Stole anything not nailed down from any hotel in which she ever stayed. This included EVERYTHING at a hotel breakfast bar, including on one occasion, more than 30 donuts. (She would eat this stolen food even after it had grown mold on it.) --Kept the house so cold that her kids wore their winter coats, hats and gloves indoors.--Stole food from restaurant buffets, would ask for basket after basket of free breads that went into her purse, stole paper napkins/straws/plastic utensils/condiments.--Convinced her husband she had no choice but to behave this way since he didn't earn enough money to allow them to "live like normalpeople". She kept control of the finances and her husband believed her and had low self esteem for decades as a result. In reality, upon her death, he discovered that they had millions in the bank.

Babybartfast got to keep the candy (which was wrapped, thank goodness) and one cheap-but-new-looking toy, and the rest are going straight back to Goodwill.

So they aren't good enough for you or your child, but they're good enough for Goodwill? Why do you think Goodwill would want them?

Agree.

I don't know. Things that are worn or ratty or smoky have no place being donated, but things that would be alright after a wash? I used to be time rich but cash poor and I would pick up slightly dirty but otherwise fine toys at garage sales or wherever and soak them in nappy sanitiser, wash them, hang them on the line in the sun and air to dry and they'd be good as new. Now I have the presence of money and absence of time and don't have the time to a) find and b) clean toys I wouldn't consider it and would pass on toys like that to the next person who may want them.

In other words, just because *I* don't want something, or don't have the time/inclination to return it to a usable state doesn't mean that noone would. I'm not familiar with Goodwill as such so I can't comment as to what they specifically would accept but I don't think that in general things should be trashed just because I, personally, don't have the time and energy to restore them to their former glory.

OTOH when MIL tried to give us some sheets that we didn't want on the basis that they were "too good to donate" - THEN I saw red.

If we take the attitude put forth by Luci and PaperRoses to its extreme end, then nobody would ever donate anything at all. "Not right for me" is not the same as "not right for anyone."

Pod.

If it isn't good enough for me, it isn't good enough for anyone else. I did not say 'not right' and after rereading this all, I missed that statement.

I donate towels that I have been given and hate. Towels that are only half used but don't match my decore.

I donate scraps of fabric and yarn because many people know how to use small amounts. I won't donate the same stuff caught in a flood or sewer disaster.

I donate stuff from my cutlery drawer because it is still usable but I now have better.

I donated clothing the children had outgrown and there was no one else in the family in the immediate future that could use it. I donate my fat clothes that are still usable but I will never wear again.

I donate old curtains washed and labeled because I know that someone else can use them or know how to resew them for their own uses.

We donate lamps that we have replaced and are still usable as lamps - and know that parts may be used for someone else's project.

I did a major purge last year, and by IRS had a $700 deduction. All stuff I would not mind having in my home but knew someone else might need or like. There was a lot of other stuff that I donated to specific charities that I didn't deduct.

Please don't criticize me for being selective about my donations and not wanting to burden others with my garbage.

Pod.

And if we took the attitude put forth by Slartibartfast to the extreme, Goodwill centers would be nothing but trash dumps.

I do not donate anything I would not use myself. I donate things because they are usable, possibly even brand new, I just don't need them.

But if it's "too grungy for me" then it's too grungy to donate.

And I really don't see why "taking the attitude put forth to the extreme" has any relevance whatsoever.

When I was a kid, my dad reused dental floss. He kept a long string hanging from the rearview mirror of his truck and would floss with it and put it back whenever the mood struck him.

My mom reuses ziplock bags all the time. They are really not meant to be washed, and so often have a film of leftover food clinging to the inside.

Recently, a relative gave my son a birthday gift. She used a typical girl baby gift bag--decorated in pink flowers and ribbons, and said "It's a Girl!" in big pink letters. Relative crossed out Girl, wrote Boy, and then wrote my son's name--misspelled--underneath. DH and I got a good laugh out of that one.

I use a lot of thrifty tricks and some people might call me a cheapskate, but IMO I never cross that line. One of my proudest achievements is 3-stage vegetable usage. When we buy veggies, I save the scraps in the freezer and then cook them into broth. Then, I take the scraps and pass them along to my brother to use as compost.

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"From a procrastination standpoint, today has been wildly successful."

Can I respectfully request we get off the Goodwill donating aspect of this thread? It's become contentious on here before and it's looking to do so again. We're all just going to have to agree to disagree - some people think there's a category of items which are "too old/grubby/etc. for me to choose to use but still have plenty of life left in them" and other people think there isn't. I highly doubt an argument on the internet is going to change anyone's opinion on that.

Oh, and I wanted to chime in on the stuffed animals. I used to go to Goodwill and buy stuffies by the barrel. My dog's quirk was to destroy - no, anniliate - them down to little inch square pieces of fabric.

I bought a used stuffie for the Cairn Terrorist - once. He started to rip at it, and then a look of sheer disgust came over his face, and he spit it out. I didn't know dogs could spit like that. Then he stalked away and sulked the rest of the day.

He most definitely did NOT approve of frugality when it came to his comforts.

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My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."

My rule for donation is that the quality should be good enough for me. It's obviously not going to be something I'm actually using, or else I'd still be using it instead of donating it, but the dealbreaker is something other than quality. Doesn't fit. Needs alterations I don't have the skill to do myself. Color/pattern I hate. No space to keep it. Etc. Just not ratty rags.

When I was little I remember my grandma used to save soap slivers, put them in a jar with water, soaked it till it got really gooey, and made kind of a detergent to use. I used to know of people who did this a long time ago, but haven't seen it recently.

I recently stayed in a hotel that promptly went on my "Didn't care for, won't revisit" list. (Didn't care for the level of cleanliness, food and service lacking etc.)

One quirk I did notice was that the hotel did offer complimentary shampoo and soap - but in large dispensers fastened to the wall of the shower. Perfectly hygienic and all, and no doubt cheaper than providing individually wrapped items, but I did find it a bit off putting in a stingy sort of way.But I may be biased because by this time I was already less than impressed with the place.

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"I think her scattergun was only loaded with commas and full-stops, although some of them cuddled together for warmth and produced little baby colons and semi-colons." ~ Margo

"I just thought you should know you're wife is out here spending your paycheck on shoes," he told DH.

This friend, of course, is a notorious cheapskate, who flips out anytime his wife makes a purchase he doesn't approve of.

Does his wife work or is it a case of "No wife of mine will ever work" so the can control the purse strings? I bet he longs for the days when all women have no say.

Oh, no, his wife works. I work, too, for that matter, but he doesn't see it as real work because I work from home. (He doesn't think I make any money at what I do, which is kind of funny since a lot of people grossly over-estimate what I make.) So he thinks DH earns the majority of our income and therefore should determine how all funds are spent. He is the same way about his household's income. His wife earns a decent living, but he earns more so he thinks he should determine how the money is spent. I think it's a combination of factors:

1) He wants to feel in control because it makes him feel like "the man."

2) He doesn't want her to know how much he spends on stuff for himself, including tools, fishing equipment, and "big boy toys."

3) If something isn't of direct use to him (i.e. clothes/shoes for the wife, clothes/shoes for the kids, decorations for the house, perfume or make-up for the wife, craft supplies) he doesn't consider it a necessary purchase, and therefore, something to be avoided or skimped on.

Her shoes or the kids' shoes? "You couldn't have bought a cheaper pair at Walmart?"

Clothes for her or the kids?"I don't remember us talking about buying you a new dress."

Make-up or perfume?"You don't need all of that stuff."

Craft supplies or decorative stuff?"Ugh, great, more %^& to clutter up our house."

From what I could tell when we were spending time together, the wife is not a shopaholic by any means. Unfortunately, his tactics work against her more often than not. She'd return the decorative stuff or the perfume or shoes she bought just to make herself feel good. (She's more resistant to returning stuff for the kids. If they need shoes and clothes, they keep them.) From some comments she's made, I get the impression that she grew up in a household where whatever the husband said was law and she thinks this is normal behavior.

DH slowly realized what a jerk this guy is a few years after we got married and he recognized the disparity in how friend treated his wife and DH treats me. He has all but written off the friendship except for the occasional call and facebook post for old time's sake. Or friend calling to tattle to my husband about yours truly, DH's shoe-fiend wife.

It was two pairs!!

Even though I grit my teeth at almost every word that comes out of this guy's mouth, I try to remember that if nothing else, he serves as a wonderful example of how NOT to treat one's wife. DH has learned a lot from him as an opposite role model.

At work we were collecting for a food drive at Christmas and someone donated swollen, rusted cans of food. I was shocked. Who does stuff like this?

For two years 2010-2011, I headed our Scouting for food checkpoint, where we would check for dates before boxing the food and loading the truck.

People donated the following items:

*Cream of Broccoli soup that expired in 1986.*Nutri-system food packets with no dates or information on them other than the brand name.*Opened packages of hot dogs.*Odds and ends from gift baskets with no expiration dates or nutritional information.